Voost Kain
Banned
According to Kotaku, a sealed first edition copy of Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System was recently sold for a hefty $100, 150. As if this figure wasn’t shocking enough, experts in the field of classic game collecting are saying that this deal is the first six-figure transaction for a single game.
Apparently, the previous highest-selling game of all time was also a copy of the original Super Mario Bros. sold back in 2017 for over $30,000. As for what caused the massive increase in price, apparently the difference comes down to a tiny sticker.
Between 1985 and 1986, when they were test-marketing the NES in New York and Los Angeles, Nintendo only sealed their sold games with a black foil sticker to keep the top flap closed. So, a black foil sticker rather than shrink-wrapping apparently justifies an increase in price of $70,000.
If you collected old games like Atari, Coleco, Sega, Nintendo, etc, your best time was 2001-2007 at best. Although there are some games on some systems that I am missing I got most of my collections before this insanity. For after 2007 good luck, if you see any deals get them fast before greedy people start paying attention and adjust prices accordingly. Some of the people buying games like this aren't even collectors but may be re-sellers or have some other alternative motive.
The last few years have been really difficult for retro game collecting on several systems unless you don't mind burning wads of cash. Even for bad games you have to spend wads of cash.
What's worse is when many morons by these games at a premium and then everyone else inflates the prices higher because there's no unity in retro collecting, so it's just a big mess. Game could be $30 today, some guy sells it for $70 tomorrow, next week all selling copies are $90. For those that have been on the fence nothing you can do but wait for interest and demand to drop, which happens with some systems a few times after 2-3 years. temporarily.
BTW PS2/Xbox/GC/DC games are still relatively cheap but if you've been paying attention that's rapidly changing so I would start working on those collections now.